World Wide Knit in Public Day

This week was World Wide Knit in Public Day. I can imagine what GG would have to say about such a thing. She knit and she crocheted, in public, in private, in the car, on vacation, at her house, at my house, at anyone’s house. Why have a day? Make it a lifestyle!

She always had a bag, or two, with a project “on the needles”. Once, she pulled something out of her purse while talking to me at my apartment. It was always a casual move, picking up her needlework while still listening or talking. I never felt ignored or that she was bored with me. Sometimes, I didn’t notice WHEN she took out her knitting only that she was NOW knitting. It was what GG did…knit in public. You shared GG with her knitting, and that was ALL THE TIME. 

What some people didn’t know, was that it made her better at listening. I too always have a project for on the go. When I knit during a speech, sermon at church, or program, I realize that I am paying attention to the words and not others in the room, or the decor, or what’s out the window. My hands are busy, my mind is not. I’m in the moment. Wonderboy still reads to me while I knit (one of my favorite pastimes)and I better comprehend the story later BECAUSE I knit. If GG got out her knitting, she was paying attention. 

If you wanted to learn, she was more than happy to share her skill with you. It didn't matter how old you were, or if you had ever picked up a hook or needle before.

GG teaching Wonderboy

GG would have loved the gathering for Knit in Public day.  We were at the Hoover library in AL. It was 95 degrees outside and over 80 people were knitting in the cafe area inside. I taught beginning crochet. GG was there in spirit as both Wonderboy and I talked about her, used her tools, and caught ourselves using her words and phrases. The energy was encouraging. It was joyful, and respectful of every persons abilities. There was much to see and several showed the artfully wonderful projects they had “on the needles”. It was an atmosphere GG would have been delighted to be a part of.

Photos of WWKIP day

Dear GG

A very long time ago I gave GG a page-a-day calendar for Christmas. It was an inspirational, art type and page-a-day's were relatively new then. (yes, I DID say it was a very long time ago)  She loved the idea of it on her table next to breakfast and dinner.

GG did not waste anything and liked to give back more than anyone I have ever met. Being GG she took every page and wrote on the back of it. She included what she had done that day, what projects were on the needles, who she saw, gossip, and even what she ate. At the end of the week she put the entire weeks worth in the mail to me. She told me she wanted ME to see the quotes and pictures since I bought it. It became one of the greatest memories I could have of her.

Keeping in mind I would get to enjoy the calendar over the next year, I gave her more calendars each Holiday, then started to give her stamps and envelopes too. After Wonderboy was born, I was so glad to have a written account of her. (Of course I kept every page) She continued, even writing on notecards or post-its to The Boy. He started writing to her as well, even before he could write well.  I would have to write as he dictated. If she didn't get a letter I'd hear about it. The two of them made a card and colored it red. The "Red Card" stated that you include it with your letter to get a letter back. If you were not quick, she would get her weekly letter to you before you sent her one, and she'd have something to say about it.

We knew about all her neighbors, the family, and of course her knit group at the Kroc center. When she died, they found another "letter" to me on the table.

I miss her weekly letters.

Dear GG....
Friday June 3rd

It's been an eventful week for us. I'm working on more pieces for shops. I think I've found a good place for most of my things. I have 3 more shawls to block, and one on the needles. Of course there are socks. Socks are never-ending with a teen that's growing. Size 14 shoes are big socks to fill!!  I fill in with the "no brainers" at night and crochet flowers and long crochet "ribbons". If my brain is not too tired I make tiny animals.

I finished a cat pillow for a friend.

Wonderboy is making terrific things but not all needlework. He likes to crochet food. Imagine that! His favorite are psychedelic mushrooms. He's sold several.

He's really good at it. At Christmas we had food everywhere.  I know you would have laughed that loud, contagious laugh of yours at seeing pizza, carrots, and a strawberry on the tree next to your angels.

He's also drawing and writing songs. He's happy and healthy and i know that's really what you want to hear.

I miss you,
Beth Ann

I Have GG's Hands

I was working an intricate scarf for Wonderboy.  The pattern is my own, but in a stitch that you have to pay attention and look closely at your work. I was watching the yarn go around the needles, off the needles, and turn into a work of art.  At some point the meditation Zen kicked in and I was contently watching my hands.  That’s when I saw GG’s hands.  I have GG’s hands.  

It makes sense. 

GG’s hands were the first to put needles in my hands. I remember playing with yarn and needles when I was little and stayed at her house. Later, when I was an adult, GG would remember times when I was 4 years old.  She said I would wind the yarn “around and around the needle, as close as you could get it, until it got to the top. Then you’d push all of it up and off, “pop!”, watching it twist around and laugh and laugh.”  She was amused every time she told the story. She giggled, saying I would sit for a very long time winding, over and over again. She was delighted that I was so interested and had what she called “The Needlebug”. 

GG’s hands were the first to teach me how to properly hold a set of needles, a crochet hook, a sewing needle, a quilt frame.  GG’s hands were the first to show me how to hold yarn, cast on, bind off,sew a seam, make a test swatch. Although she wasn’t a stickler for gauge, test swatches were plentiful so that you could see the stitches, learn the pattern (then promptly change it to suit your needs), and share the experience.

Over the years, my visits with her always had some sort of needlework going on. If she came to my house, one large bag (or two) was devoted to yarn and something she wanted to show me. If I was at her house, I left with new stitches, patterns, and techniques in my head or written down. We would exchange stories while we knit. I learned about her life, her values, her humor while knitting or crocheting. One of us would cook while the other knit. If we couldn’t knit (like outside in the heat or on the pontoon boat) we would talk about knitting.  

One night, at my house, we stayed up very late. Both of us were so “wound up” about a pattern we were trying to make work. As I mentioned earlier, she taught me how to adapt a pattern to meet my needs. We kept talking in the dark. — If we just changed one thing or another. Maybe we should twist the yarn backwards. What if….— We “didn’t know enough to go to sleep” because we couldn’t stop talking about knitting. Suddenly, we realized we both had our hands in the air trying to imagine the stitches. She started laughing so hard in that laugh that made you unable to keep from laughing yourself. She taught me to laugh at myself.

My hands are older now and have the wrinkles, spots and aches that come with age. They remind me that GG’s hands showed MY hands how to make art, how to love, how to live, how to laugh, how to bind together our lives.

The Wonky Afghan

GG and I knit and crocheted together.  It’s one of those memory moments. You know, the ones that flow together so that you don’t know what year it was, what visit that you were together.  You just remember being there, in the moment, sharing time and growing as a person.  Most people have memories of hanging out in their grandmother's kitchen.  My memories are when GG and I knit.

You remember the memory moments ... it’s where you talked about boys, then guys.  You talked about your dreams, your worries. You talked about your future, her past.You talked about her life stories, her memories, her wisdom.  You told her secrets.  She gave advise.  My GG did this while we knit.  

Every visit as an adult we would sit together and she would start out with a “hey, let me show you this” and proceed with her hook or needles and a new pattern stitch.  I would follow along with my own yarn and tools.  We continued to talk as we worked a complete square.  No attention to gauge, no need to, it was simply to learn stitches and exchange techniques. By the end of the visit there would be several squares, some looking identical, made by the two of us.

One return visit, GG was pretty excited to show me an afghan she had just finished.  It was some of those squares sewn together.  The “wonky afghan”. We made more squares, and she continued to add to it. It was not planned and she used what ever we made. 

The afghan is not square.  It doesn’t even have straight edges.  The colors are not in the same family, the stitches are not the same size, the yarns are not compatible (although most of it is acrylic). It is made by two different set of hands at different times in both of our lives. She continued to add squares until it was the perfect size for the back of her couch. It stayed there for years, and is now in my house.

She told me she liked to look at it.  I imagine her sitting in her chair across from the couch, remembering the times we were working “on the needles” together.  That’s what I do now.  I can remember how excited she was to show me how beautifully a stitch would make a repeat lace pattern. 

How to sew together without a needle.  A new cast on. How to make a butterfly…

I’m happy that the wonky afghan is one of the things I have from GG.  Something that’s a part of the universe, a part of her, a part of me with her, and a reminder of the memory moments.

Me and GG on the couch with the Wonky Afghan

Project Bag

I posted on Ravelry that I have finished fixing a bag that I was lucky enough to get from GG.

I remember when she carried it.  I think she would be happy that I am using it.  She used to get upset if she gave you something and you didn't use it.  Here's what I posted....

I was lucky enough to get some items from my grandma (GG) after she passed in December 2012. One of them was this bag that she made from leftover yarn. She used it and carried it everywhere with her projects at the ready. By the time I received it, the stitching was coming apart, the handles had stretched the fabric, and it was pilling.

I have taken great care and put a lot of thought into repairing this bag. Most would say it was not worth it given the fact that it was leftover yarns, acrylic, and in poor shape. This bag was my GG’s. The person who taught me how to knit, how to stitch, how to crochet, how to design, how to live. I had to fix it so that I could carry it myself. I am happy with the results.

I repaired the felt inside lining. All of the yarn I used to repair this project came from GG’s stash. She had crocheted special pockets for scissors, a hook and pattern. I sewed up the sides and reinforced them. I purchased dowel rods and cut them to measure the top to give it more structure. I crocheted around them leaving enough room to remove them before washing.

GG had bamboo handles from an old handbag that I removed. I crocheted new handles, using the braid technique she taught me years ago. She used this stitch in the body of the bag.

I cleaned and removed the pills.

I now am happy to carry a piece of art from the woman that taught me so much. I am proud to tell my fellow needlework buddies that I shared in the making of this art, and I carry her memory with me.

If you want to see the Ravelry Post it's here...

BethTan's GG's Bag

I've Been Busy!

There are all sorts of reasons I have not written anything.  Some are excuses, some are explanations.

It was difficult to write after the last post because it was so close to Christmas...so close to a year since GG left us...and GG loved Christmas.  Every time I sat down and tried to write, it was heartbreaking.  I missed her more.  Writing was not therapeutic, and Wonderboy was feeling it too.  I was trying to ignore my grief so that I could help him.

It was sad to get out all of the numerous decorations I have collected from GG, all handmade with love.  She was ALWAYS the first to give us a Christmas card, and when the mail delivered someone else's card, we both noticed.   I have saved all of her cards from past years...she wrote in them, drew funny faces, and told us about her life.

We of course, have close to 10 Christmas trees. We made a forest on a table, and kept a tree in every room.  GG made the trees and sold them every year.  She used to tell us about having so many trees in her living room that she didn't need the lights or heat. I remember one year she told me she had 75!.

We also have crocheted Angels (lots of small ones, and a big one for the top of the tree), crocheted lace colored balls, and stockings made from granny squares.  Then there are the cross stitch framed art pieces.  We are lucky to have a huge Santa for the wall that makes everyone laugh with his crooked smile, backwards clock, and rumpled coat.  We also have a colorful hanging for the door that says... MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Wonderboy has a set of small dated cross stitch ornaments.  GG started making them for him the year he was born. (2001)  He got the first one in Oct when he was born, then then next at Christmas so he had the next years to put on the tree.  One year, GG came home from one of the cross stitch conventions with a lot of kits for these ornaments.  She went to work and gave him a box full all dated for the years to come.  I kept telling her she had to make more... I didn't want to have ornaments dated that ended.  She always laughed and told me not to worry. The date on the last ornament was the year 2013, the ornament she would have given him the day she passed.  It was too odd.  Wonderboy never put them on the tree.  I used Christmas ribbon and strung them evenly on the ribbon then put it across his room over his bed like a mobile.  We added an ornament every year. Last year was the last one.

We are doing better now. I keep thinking that GG would be unhappy with me for not writing. She would want me to get on with it.  I was lucky enough to be so close to her, to talk to her 2-3 times a month, to get letters every week, and now honor her memory with her stories.  Those are the important things.

So when I posted on Ravelry a picture of the handmade bag she used to carry, I felt it was time to get on with it with the blog.

PEACE
Beth Ann

GG Wisdom

"When in doubt, rip it out."

I know lots of knitters say this.  In the beginning of my knitting journey, she used to tell me "Never be afraid to rip it out. If you see a mistake that you can't live with, you will see it every time you look at your knitting." 

I ignored her a couple of times. - yes I was a brave young girl ignoring her advise.-  I was sorry that I did.  No one else saw the "mistake" that I had made, but I did.  Sometimes I was silly enough to even point it out to people, so they saw it.  

Another time I thought I was following a pattern wrong.  I just kept knitting, ignoring the advise.  I ended up with a sweater with sleeves so long a monkey could have worn it.

Each time I loose count, find I have the wrong number of stitches, drop a stitch, or loose a stitch marker and really mess it up...I hear GG's voice.  Don't get me wrong, she was great at teaching me how to "fix" some of these problems, and some times I do...but when in doubt, I rip it out.

I have a story from GG about when she was in the hospital several years ago.

She had her knitting with her (that goes without saying I guess), and all of the nurses would ask her about what she was knitting.  Some of them had knitting of their own that they brought in to show her.  One nurse was having a terrible time with a project that had over 100 stitches.  She was new to knitting and didn't know what she was doing.  She kept getting the wrong number of stitches.  GG said she looked at it and quickly determined that it was hopeless to "fix" back more than 3 or 4 rows.  She said the entire project was not wrong, but the last part needed to come out.  So, without telling this nurse what she was going to do, she stated "when in doubt, rip it out" and took it off the needles.  She said the nurse gasped and put her hands to her face.  GG told her not to worry and explained as she was ripping out the rows.  The nurse kept repeating, "How will you get it back on the needles? I'm going to have to start all over."  GG calmly told her to watch.  (I have been in this poor woman's shoes and know how she felt, but you are there only once as GG works her magic).  She then picked up the stitches with the ease and careful detail we all know.  She then showed this nurse what to do.  The next day everyone had heard about it, and the nurse was happily showing off her project that was back on track.  GG was now the hero.  She would laugh as she described the nurses face as she "popped those stitches right off the needle."  But in the end, everyone understood that GG knew what she was doing.